Divine justice

Bringing a spiritual perspective to daily life

November 2, 2000

A grave sense of injustice combined with a sense of powerlessness often leads to violence. While some merely endure injustice, others burn with anger. But neither mental state proves to be very effective in making concrete and positive changes. Neither fatalism nor rage leads to genuine progress or justice.

Over the centuries, when Muslims, Christians, or Jews have been in dire straits, some have sought a deeper understanding of God and of divine justice. When human justice fails, a desire for divine justice often takes root.

At first, many people transfer their desire for vengeance to God, hoping that God will inflict vengeance on those who have done wrong. But these are unrighteous prayers that do not bear fruit. A prayer that acknowledges that God is just, however, that God is all powerful, and that one's life is in His hands, opens the door to progress.

The Bible states, "The earth is the Lord's, and the fulness thereof; the world, and they that dwell therein" (Ps. 24:1). Religious scriptures often present spiritual truths that aren't readily seen by the human eye; but they often help people think about life from a different basis. If the earth is the Lord's, then reason tells us the earth is under the Lord's jurisdiction. God rules over what He creates. His law operates throughout His creation. God enforces His law throughout creation - and it reaches everyone and everything in it.

When we are ignorant of these facts, we are unaware that we can appeal to God for justice. We may not know of the divine power, the divine force of law, that is available to all, whether we have human resources or allies or not. Prophets over the centuries have opened people's eyes to the nature and power of God. They have helped them discern the hand of God - the power of God - at work in life, delivering peoples from injustice.

An important book that talks about our divine rights and how to experience this law of God is called "Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures." It was written by Mary Baker Eddy, a deep spiritual thinker who was living in the United States at the beginning of the 20th century. When writing about the struggle to overcome slavery in the US, she noted: "The history of our country, like all history, illustrates the might of Mind, and shows human power to be proportionate to its embodiment of right thinking. A few immortal sentences, breathing the omnipotence of divine justice, have been potent to break despotic fetters and abolish the whipping-post and slave market; but oppression neither went down in blood, nor did the breath of freedom come from the cannon's mouth. Love is the liberator" (pg. 225).

Here Mrs. Eddy is speaking of the Love that is God, a power that is available to everyone. It is vastly more than kindness or tenderness. It is an unlimited force of good that comes from God to deliver men and women from injustice. It is a power that neutralizes evil. It is a creative force that unfolds solutions where none seemed possible before. It is what reveals to us the omnipotence of God. The discovery of this great power transforms life.

Divine justice is not arbitrary. It is not prejudiced. It can't be bribed or intimidated. Many religious beliefs suggest that God favors one people over another, but this unfortunate belief is not true. One universal God, one underlying Principle of all being, governs all creation equally. If we understand this, we can also take great encouragement from this scripture: "The Lord is our judge, the Lord is our lawgiver, the Lord is our king; he will save us" (Isa. 33:22).

Our hearts naturally long for evidence of these facts. Experience proves that the more we let the omnipotence of God grow in our thought - the more we acknowledge it - the more evidence of its truth appears in our life. The feeling may hit us that we are powerless. And we can readily agree that alone, we may be powerless. But if we have a living sense of God with us - of God governing us - then we're guided and animated by divine power, and there is no limit to the good that can be accomplished. Divine justice is inevitable, and it will bless everyone.